Friday, March 21, 2008

To Read or Not to Read, is that the question?

The NEA's new report on reading [PDF] paints a bleak picture of reading as a pleasure activity in the US. In a quick look at the document, I didn't see any discussion of the possibility that reading on computer screens accounts for some of the change in reading habits. What is clear though is that reading does compete with other media, and it seems to be losing, particularly among young people:

58% of 7th- to 12thgraders multitask while reading, some ormost of the time. To consider multitasking in other terms: 35% of total weekly reading time for children and teens is shared with other media. “Screen media” alone—video/computer games, e-mail or instant messaging, Web surfing and, of course, TV-watching—account for 20% of reading time, according to the analysis.


Is there any irony in the fact that a 90 page report about people not reading has a 15 page executive summary?

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